The Oklahoma City Thunder have painted themselves into a hole with less than a week to go in the regular season. In April they have given up the top seed in the Western Conference to the San Antonio Spurs trailing now by 1 1/2 games. The Thunder have home games versus Sacramento and playoff bound Denver remaining. The Spurs have a home game versus Portland on the 23rd, then a back to back at Phoenix and at Golden State to finish the season on the 26th. If they held on, San Antonio, the top seed would play the Utah Jazz as the standings show today. Oklahoma City at the No. 2 seed would face the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in the opening round. Dallas’ veterans would be more than ready for the task of proving that they are still championship-worthy by upsetting the young Thunder, so of all the potential playoff matchups in the West, this is the toughest.

The Thunder’s sizzle is wearing off as early in March they were playing the best basketball of any NBA team. The loss to the Lakers today was very tough as James Harden took an intentional elbow to the face by Ron Artest/Metta World Peace. He is reported as by CBSSports.com to have a concussion. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook shot a combined 2 for 12 in the fourth quarter of today’s game. Coach Scott Brooks is now beginning to field questions that his team is collapsing before the playoffs, so the Thunder have some healing and ‘tweaking’ to do in the last week before the playoffs. San Antonio appears to be as healthy before the playoffs as they have been in previous years (especially last year versus the Grizzlies). Boris Diaw and Stephen Jackson will give great results off the bench for the Spurs ‘Big 3′ of Parker, Duncan and Ginobili.